I am a newbie to this mower, I am familiar with my fathers Xmark which I know has hydraulics, but I thought my Raptor was all electronic? And I was reading that the EZ trany's in these aren't good for hauling anythingUnless the operator is really a big person and there a lot of hills involved I can't imagine it would be a problem at all. If you are worried I would buy a $10 laser thermometer and get a reading on what your hydros normally reach operating temperature and then check them while you're using the sweeper. I'm betting they won't run any warmer in the cool weather in fall than they do in hot weather when you're mowing during summer.
Thanks so much for all the info I appreciate it. As far as the hydro on the axle is there fluid that needs checked for that? I tried looking in the manual and didn't see anything. And yes I'm about 200lbs but the lawn Sweeper itself weighs I bet 150lbs without anything in it. I might not take the chance of using that. I guess my next route is tarp the heavy blanket of leaves if it gets out of control and buy some gator blades or high lift blades?I just checked the hydro gear website and it says the ezt transmission is good for a 900 pound vehicle weight. Raptor weighs about 500 pounds if you weigh about 200 that still leaves you a 200 pound implement you can pull behind.
Btw..hydro gear has a website with email contact link... I contacted them once with a question and they got back pretty quickly why don't you send them all your information and see what they say?